Former NSA chief Michael Hayden has finally seen the light. He thinks the NSA should stop actively weakening encryption and stop asking for backdoors.
These are new tunes and would break with the offensive strategy the NSA has pursued so far.
The US is “better served by stronger encryption, rather than baking in weaker encryption.”
This will strengthen the defense rather than the US favored offense.
The American companies that are market leaders in IT are all suffering from the lack of trust from "foreigners" because they might well be ordered to supply them with backdoor infested soft and hardware.
Given the fact that the US navy created Tor for security reasons and then spent the next nears cursing Tor because others were using it; this would mean a return to the starting point.
Simply making computing secure.
Hayden is on heavy collision course with the FBI who have the completely opposite take on this issue.
This is surprising because current leadership in the Department of Defense and at the FBI has strongly advocated the opposite position. In July, Hayden already hinted that he didn’t support the FBI’s push for backdoors, but he came strongly against it on Tuesday.
And he goes further:
“I would not support [FBI] Director [James] Comey’s demands for access.”
About time
It is a bit tragic that only the "formers" see the light though. The active ones are still strongly supporting the offense by the looks of it.
The current NSA director, Adm. Mike Rogers is more or less sharing the FBI's concerns.
So It is a small step for privacy but a giant leap for Michael Hayden....
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